2007 Subaru Forester Reviews - Page 2 of 3

Summary:

This is a brilliant car

Faults:

Absolutely nothing, and I live in the outback, a 160km drive down a dirt track to the bitumen!

General Comments:

This car is simply amazing. I live in a remote area in the West Australian outback, and the road to the highway is a rutted, at times muddy, and generally punishing 4wd track. The Subaru has taken it all in its stride, including 2 creek crossings!

My monthly shop for supplies means 320km on this track into and out of town, and the Forester is comfortable, solid and safe for the trip.

I return to Perth three times a year, and the Forester is perfect. 3000km to Perth and 3000km back, it transforms from a rugged little 4wd to a highway cruiser with ABS, cruise, good seats and a willing engine. The handling is superb. The AWD / ABS / handling has saved me once already having to avoid a stray cow when travelling at over 100km/h! Also getting 8.5 L/100km highway usage, which is great!

Not sure if this is true, but the poor reviews by US customers may be due to the car being manufactured in the US, rather than being an import as they are in Oz. It's a pity, because down under Subaru have an awesome reputation for build quality and reliability.

Only downside. Dealer support is very patchy. Subaru Australia need to start taking their customers' concerns seriously to retain goodwill. My previous Subaru had some problems (bought new) and I was fobbed off repeatedly by the dealership.

29th Mar 2010, 06:32

A great review, I'm on my second brand new Forester here in the UK. Had the first one for 5 years with no faults at all, and my second one is living up to that as well. Love it, couldn't even consider another make of car. You are right about imports; for me a Japanese car must be made in Japan.

2007 Subaru Forester Sport XT 2.5L turbo from North America

Summary:

Faults:

Just some minor "rattling" if I can even call it that when it is in the upper 80's or warmer. Nothing that I feel is absurd for a sub $30,000 Japanese car.

Subaru dealerships are hard to find, and with that a good dealership seems even harder to find, although a good service shop that is cheaper than the dealer, and will keep your car under warranty, is just a yelp.com search away.

General Comments:

Amazingly well handling car. I have made some minor improvements to the suspension (swift springs and swaybar/endlinks), very well mannered in the city as well as in the mountains.

The car is quick enough for me to remain happy with its performance, and not feel the need to do the whole engine management side of things.

Interior is efficient in its presentation and appearance, visibility is excellent from the cabin of the car.

I have made several long distance trips in this vehicle (Seattle to Montana, and Seattle to its new home in the SF Bay Area, as well as trips to Tahoe and Washington Mountains) and was plenty comfortable for the trip, even with driving 13 hours straight from Seattle to SF.

The seats are different in the Sports model than in the Premium and Standard models, so keep that in mind.

I have had no significant problems with the car to date.

I receive compliments on the car all the time; it is definitely a unique automobile, and people do notice. Just something to note, in the 50,000 miles that I owned my Impreza, I never needed any work done, other than the regularly scheduled stuff.

2007 Subaru Forester CX 2.0 from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Faults:

I bought this car to replace my previous Forester, which throughout my five years of ownership was totally perfect in all respects.

The new car was registered by Subaru and converted to run on LPG by them, it then stood for about 12 months in their compound.

The car looks beautiful, and with only 300 miles is as new.

I was advised to run it on petrol for the first 1000 miles to run it in, which I did. On switching to gas I discovered a serious misfire and engine shuddering, this is so bad that it's embarrassing as the car bucks and jumps.

The dealer test-drove it and agreed it was far from satisfactory and called in Subaru engineers.

The outcome of this is that it needs two new cylinder heads, valves and camshafts - some modification to the combustion chambers is required for it to run properly on LPG.

The work will be done within the next few weeks, I have every reason to suppose that this will cure the problem, both the marque and the dealer are top-notch in my experience.

When running on petrol the misfire is noticeable but nowhere near as bad.

General Comments:

The car looks fantastic in Newport blue and has all the boys toys.

The engine has been uprated from my previous one, and the gain in performance is very noticeable.

Love the car and I'm confident Subaru and the dealer will sort it out.

8th Apr 2009, 10:08

11th May 2009, 06:59

The dealer in Leeds has now carried out the work on replacing the cylinder heads etc. I now have the car back and can honestly say it is a delight to drive. I did 200 miles in two days running on LPG, cruising at 70 MPH for most of that time. The car never missed a beat and returned unexpectedly good gas consumption results. I am now very happy with this car and expect it to be trouble-free for the rest of the time I own it, just like the last one.